


The Good Thing About Glitter

by SpideyAtStarbucks



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bisexual Peter Parker, Embarrassed Peter Parker, Harley Keener is a little shit, Human Disaster Peter Parker, M/M, Peter Parker Angst, Peter Parker Has Anxiety, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker Whump, Peter Parker is a Mess, Poor Peter Parker, Poor Tony Stark, Prank Wars, Social Anxiety, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-23 21:23:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19709722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpideyAtStarbucks/pseuds/SpideyAtStarbucks
Summary: After Harley finds a glob of half chewed bubblegum on his desk, he finds that Peter Parker is to blame. Harley's left with no other choice than to initiate a prank war with the younger.Add complicated feelings, misunderstandings, a genius father figure, a whole lot of glitter, and you've got yourself a mess the size of New York.





	1. Bright Pink Bubblegum

Harley stared at the bright pink wad of gum that sat on his chair and the Post-It Note that sat right next to it. On the Post-It Note was a smiley face that stared up at him with blank eyes that feared no man nor God. Harley looked up into the eyes of Peter Parker who sat in the desk across from him. Harley raised an eyebrow. Peter popped his bright pink bubblegum. Harley couldn't help but laugh at it all as he pointed to the wad of gum and the note on his chair.

"Care to explain what this is, Parker?" He asked with a chuckle. Peter leaned over in his seat and looked at the insulting gob with a frown.

"Oh. That's really gross. I could uh, help pick it up if you'd like, " he offered. As he talked, his ears had grown a bright shade of red and he had avoided eye contact with the older boy at all cost. A dead giveaway.

Harley scoffed. "You know, I almost believed you."

"I - uh, what?" Peter nearly snapped his neck with how fast he looked up at Harley.

"Almost, well not really. Not at all, actually. You're a shit liar, Peter."

"I wasn't-"

"Your red ears and stutter gave you away. Not that you don't stutter usually, just that you did more than normal. Also, you're _chewing_ the gum! That's like marching into a crime scene with the murder weapon and claiming you're innocent!"

The gears in Peter's brain started to click as he gathered what exactly Harley was accusing him of. "Harley, I didn't out that gum in your chair." 

"Suuure, darlin'."

Peter's face turned beet red as Harley insisted. His eyebrows furrowed together and his nose scrunched up into a pout like an adorable puppy dog that'd just been put in time out. The more he denied Harley's claims, the redder he got. Every part of his face seemed to resemble a puppy as time went on. Even his chocolate curls bounced wildly with every insistent shake of his head. Eventually, it was to much even for Harley. With a growing smirk on his face, he relented. "Alright, darlin'. You get your wish."

Peter froze. "My wish?"

He nodded. "I feel required to warm you that no mere mortal has ever beat me and that you're going down. But don't say I didn't warn you!"

"Warn me? About what-"

"The prank war has officially begun!" Harley announced, glaring gleefully down at the brunette, who just stared up at Harley with utter confusion and annoyance.

"Harley, for the last time, I didn't put the stupid gum on your chair! Now let's grab some tissues before class starts or else Mr. Downey is gonna be real mad at us-"

"If this is really the best prank you can pull, you're in for a pleasant surprise, love." Harley scoffed, laughing to himself at Peter's shocked and red features. "A pleasant surprise or a rude awakening, only time will tell."

His face flushed red again. He glared up at Harley with his big for eyes which was about as intimidating as his pet hamster, Lucky (may he rest in peace). He immediately decided that this Peter before him was the cutest thing he'd ever seen, and that the sole purpose for every prank he would pull from then on would be so he could see that adorable, flustered face.

Peter's mouth opened, closed, then opened again, all without making a single sound. Finally, he managed to squeak out something that resembled English.

"Harls, I-"

"Shh, Peter. It's fine, I understand completely."

"Did you just shush me? And secondly, I'm not so sure you do understand, because you keep cutting me off before I can say anything-"

"I now understand what I must do in order to win." Harley declared, looking Peter dead in the eye with a knowing smirk. "Good luck, darlin', you're gonna need it!"

With that, Harley plucked the gum from his chair and stuck it onto Peter's desk with a grin. Then, he took the Post-It Note and stuck it right on Peter's forehead, who went cross-eyed trying to see the note. 

' _Adorable.'_

"Prepare for war, Peter!" Harley shouted just before the bell rang.

"Yeah, prepare for war, Penis!" Flash whispered, popping with pink bubblegum.


	2. Rainbow Glitter

"Tony! I need to order a bunch of glitter!" Harley shouted as soon as he entered the lab that day.

"Do I even want to know why?" Tony groaned, not even bothering to look up from his current project.

"Probably not. But I'd figured you already knew since we're-"

"Connected, I know. You've only told me every single hour since we met," he quipped, tearing his attention away from the Iron-Spider suit to glare at his kid. "Why don't you tell me why you need so much glitter. Assume I know nothing."

Harley laughed and shook his head. "Alright, so this kid tried to prank me today."

"The audacity."

"I know! So naturally, I challenged him to a prank war," 

"Naturally?"

"And I need to get a bunch of glitter as a prank to put this kid in his place!" As he explained, Harley decided to conveniently leave out the part where about 47% of the reason for initiating the prank war was so he could see Peter's adorable face all flushed and pink. Another 47% of the reason was so that Peter's big doe eyes would be staring up at him, only him. Not Ned, MJ, Flash, or whatever teacher they had at the moment. Just Harley. Having those brown eyes focused on him made him feel like the most important person in the entire universe.

The other 6% was because Harley genuinely enjoyed pranks, but that was hardly as important.

Tony sighed for about fifteen seconds and rubbed his temple for longer. "That poor kid. Fine. Do it before I change my mind."

Harley cheered and pumped his fist in the air before rushing to log in to Amazon Prime.

"And stop calling that poor guy kid! You're probably the same age, dipshit!"

♦

The perfect time to strike was lunchtime, Harley decided. Lunchtime was the perfect time for many things; Having a serious talk, having a silly talk, talking about your college rejection, coming out to your parents, and most importantly, pranks. Lunchtime was prime pranking time because even though it's been done so many times, nobody suspects being pranked at lunch. Lunch is supposed to be a time of idle chatter, food fights, and daring your friends to eat the school's cardboard pancakes. It's a secure but extremely fragile time of the day, which is precisely why it's perfect for pranking. They'll be surprised when they're pranked, but the timing isn't entirely inappropriate.

Whenever you pull a prank, it is critical to have good timing. Good timing can either make or break a prank. If you have a great prank but bad timing, you could end up feeling worse than the person being pranked. 

It had been a few days since he declared war on Peter. In the middle of lunch, he announced that he needed to go to the bathroom and promptly left. He snuck off to his locker and grabbed the bucket of glitter before sprinting back to the lunch room.

He tip-toed up to Peter and made eye contact with MJ, who said nothing. That was all the approval he needed before dumping the entire bucket of glitter on Peter’s head.

Peter had turned around right before the glitter dropped and Harley bathed in the sight of rainbow glitter spilling all over Peter’s red face and fluffy brown curls like a waterfall of twinkling sparkles.

In record breaking reaction time, Peter jumped up and began swiping the glitter off of him with a high pitched shriek. “Dude!” Ned burst out laughing as MJ smirked beside him. Peter started chuckling with them while still trying to brush off the glitter that had slithered its way into every nook and cranny. “Seriously, there’s glitter in places there should never be glitter,” he snorted.

Everyone was laughing and having a good time until Peter glanced to his right and his face immediately dropped. His gaze darted around the cafeteria, his face turning red and his nose scrunching up just like it had two days ago.

Peter glared up at Harley. “What the hell, man?” he whisper-shouted. Harley grinned - there was the flustered puppy dog log he’d been going for. So, public spaces were Parker’s weakness. This was going to be a lot easier than he thought.


	3. On A Scale of 1-10

The next day, Peter still had glitter in his hair. It was obvious that he had tried to get it out for hours, but to no avail. You see, the good thing about glitter is that it’s always there, even when you least expect it. 

In history, the class where it all started, Harley liked to spend his free time (i.e, the whole class time) staring at the little bits of glitter still tuck in Peter’s hair. Little specks of the rainbow peeked their way through his soft curls that looked even softer than usual. Was it the glitter? It must’ve been.

The more Harley looked, the more glitter he noticed. If you looked closely, the glitter was even on his face. Sparkles were scattered around his nose, forehead, jaw, his rosy cheeks, even his eyelashes for God’s sake. On his cheeks, the glitter was mixed into a faint array of freckles that you’d only notice if you were very close to each other. You’d only notice them if you were close enough to feel his shaky breath and feel the warmth radiating off his skin, close enough to hold his face in your hands and lean in very close to count the freckles that made his heart tie in a knot, close enough to be able to taste the bubblegum in his breath.

Harley cleared his throat and tried to fight the embarrassed blush that crawled up his chest. He needed to do something about this dumb crush or he was going to do something he would surely regret.

♦

“Tony, I need your help!” Harley all but screamed when he entered the lab.

Tony jumped up about five feet into the air and yelped, nearly dropping his coffee. “Jesus christ, kid! What is it?”

“I need you to think of a mediocre prank.”

The disbelief was clear on his face. “That’s it? That’s all you needed?” Without even waiting for Harley’s confirmation, he put his head in his hands and sighed. “Why just mediocre? Why not go all out?” He asked, reluctantly lifting his face out of his hands to raise an eyebrow at Harley before turning back to his current project.

“Because every prank I think of is too good and too genius! I have to build up to the grand finale, ya’know?” 

“I’m going to pretend like I know what you’re talking about just so you stop screaming every time you enter my lab because of this stupid prank war.”

“Aw, Tony, come on, I-”

“It’s seriously a problem kid. One day I’m gonna end up blowing this whole lab up or giving myself a heart attack and dying. Immediately. On the spot.”

“Sad, but how much do I get in the will?”

Tony sent a shocked look Harley’s way before the two burst out into laughter, the older swinging his arm around Harley’s shoulders. “So what kind of mediocre pranks are we talking about here? Like bugs hiding in food pranks or having a furry follow and embarrass someone all day?”

“Definitely the furry. His face gets super red in public spaces,” Harley explained. He chuckled, thinking back to Peter’s flustered look.

Tony watched his kid drift off into a daze, a glaze forming over his eyes and smile permanently seated at his lips. “Oh no,” he muttered. He’d recognize that love sick look anywhere. He sighed. Time to be an embarrassing dad. He grabbed his coffee cup and took a nice, long sip, never once breaking eye contact with the younger. Not that it mattered, Harley looked straight through him, too busy day dreaming about this ‘guy.’

“And… do you like it when this guy’s face is really red?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. 

Harley snapped out of his daze but avoided eye contact with Tony, knowing what he was trying to get at. “Uh… yeah. Then I know that the prank worked.”

“Any other reason why you like this kid’s blush?”

The light pink dusting Harley’s ears proved that his suspicion was correct. Tony nodded and let silence rule the conversation for a few seconds before finishing his coffee. Harley held his breath as he waited for Tony to say something. 

“No other reason,” he spat out, clearing his throat and looking at the floor. “No reason at all.”

Tony nodded about seven times too many and took another sip of his coffee. A long sip of coffee. Harley frowned. “That cup’s empty, Tony.” 

“So he is cute?” 

“Oh my God, Tony!” Harley screeched, his entire face erupting in a dark blush.

“I’m taking that as a definitely yes.” Tony smirked, setting down his empty cup. “What’s his name? Does he like you back? On a scale of one to ten, one being pretty cute and ten being those videos you showed me on… what was it, tic tack?”

“Wha- Tik Tok?”

“Right, tik tok. Those videos where people hold out their hands and their fluffy dogs come over and put their noses on their hand is ten. Where is this kid on a scale of one to ten? Pretty cute to ‘oh my god, adorable.’”

“First of all, aw, and second of all, I don’t think that’s any of your business!” Harley huffed, crossing his arms as he decided to look anywhere in the room but at Tony.

Tony copied the action and added a dramatic pout for good measure. “Come on, kid. I thought we were connected,” He whined and slapped on his puppy eyes.

Harley scoffed and rolled his eyes, turning to leave the lab. “I’m hungry. Make sure to have FRIDAY come up with some good mediocre pranks for me.”

He saluted. “Got it, chief.”

“And Tony?” 

“Yes?” 

“He’s a solid thirteen on the scale. At the very least.”


	4. Honey Treasures

After a few hours in the lab, Harley had perfected his weapon. It was a feat of engineering, a true beauty to behold. Peter was going to lose his shit.

♦

As usual, lunch was the perfect time to put his plan into action. Harley had just finished his homemade sushi and Peter was on his last bite of greasy school pizza. He would have to remember to thank Peter for his incredibly convenient timing during lunch.

"Hey Peter, want to see this thing I've been working on?' 

The brunette perked up at the question, a smile already forming on his face. He was always eager to support his friends whenever possible. This kid was too good, honestly.

"Great! Can I show you at your house after school today?" Harley felt somewhat bad about inviting himself over to Peter's home, but under no circumstances could anyone, not even smart, funny, doe-eyed Peter Parker, know that Tony freakin' Stark adopted him.

Peter scrunched up his nose and furrowed his eyebrows like he always did whenever he was thinking really long and hard about something or when he was really embarrassed. The latter was almost always accompanied by a beet red face and an unintentional, but adorable, pout. Harley listened closely to the drumming of Peter's fingers in the table until he replied. 

"Yeah, yeah. That should be okay. Aunt May won't be home until late and I don't have anything going on." Peter paused and bit his lip, looking off to the side. "I don't have anything going on today."

He smiled sheepishly, stared up at Harley through his eyelashes and smiled. Harley couldn't help but think that Peter really had the prettiest smile. Most people's smiles were scared and nervous, never really showing their teeth or even smiling a real, genuine smile. You could always tell someone had a genuine smile if they smiled with their teeth. Harley's smiles almost never were.

But Peter's smile wasn't fake. He wasn't scared of what anybody thought of his smile because he knew that the people he smiled around wouldn't care about stupid things like yellow or crooked teeth. Because of this, Peter's smile really did light up an entire room.

Harley smiled back, teeth and all.

♦

The walk to Peter's apartment had been an experience, to say the least. Harley had been in New York for a while now, but he had never seen this part of the bustling city. He'd never been on the horribly dysfunctional subway system, seen the dirty trash that covered the streets, and he had certainly never seen the small, dingy, and crowded apartment complex that Peter called home. He couldn't comprehend how someone so inherently good could live in such a dump like this (no offense to Peter or May, he was sure the inside was lovely).

Peter let go of the death grip he had on his backpack straps and shuffled through his pockets for the keys and unlocked the front door, allowing Harley to go in first. It was small like he suspected with not much furniture or accessories, but it was strangely homey.

"So what did you want to show me?" Peter asked, closing the door behind them and looking up at him.

Harley reeled back. How could he have almost forgotten the sole purpose for coming here? "Oh right!" He glanced around the apartment for a quick second before sternly pointing to a corner by a window. "Go stand in that corner and face the wall. No peeking."

Without even giving Peter the chance for a single sound to come out of his mouth, he answered the inevitable question himself. "Why? Because it's a surprise, idiot."

Peter snorted and rolled his eyes. "That's very rude, you know. I take extreme offense to that, Mr. Keener." 

"Call me Mr. Keener again and I'll let you keep your eyes open."

Harley began to worry that he had crossed a line when Peter froze with his mouth hanging open. He opened his mouth to apologize when he heard a chorus of giggles from the younger. 

"Christ, Harls. Okay, okay, I'll go in the stupid corner. Don't start any fires," Peter snickered before doing as he was told and walking over to the corner. 

Once Harley was sure that Peter couldn't see him, he reached into his backpack and grabbed his prized possession. He stared at the contraption in his hands that reminded him of the first time he had met his old man - the potato gun. Though it had the same design and concept, there was one big difference between his potato gun and this: Instead of shooting potatoes, this shot nerf darts. He figured that shooting full potatoes at Peter would probably hurt a lot and he'd almost rather jump off the Empire State building than intentionally hurt Peter, so nerf darts it was.

"Can I turn around yet?" Whined Peter from his corner by the window.

Harley aimed the gun at his back, sticking his tongue out and biting it. He wasn't sure why, but it helped with his aim. "Not yet, Princess," he hummed.

He could almost feel the blush radiating off of Peter from Harley's little nickname that had accidentally slipped out. 

"Uh, Princess? Since when-"

Peter's entire body visibly stiffened mere seconds before Harley pulled the trigger. He had turned around just in time to see the nerf dart hit his chest.

Harley's cackling was sure to be heard from across the whole apartment complex (which wasn't saying much, let's be honest). In fact, he was cackling so hard that he didn't see the pillow flying towards his head at full speed.

He froze and stared, aghast, at Peter, who was wearing a shit-eating grin.

"Oh you're going down, Sugar," growled Harley, cocking his improved nerf gun.

"Am I, Mr. Keener?" Was the boys response, still standing there with his dumb grin.

That was all it took for all hell to break loose.

Harley fired at Peter as he sprinted towards Harley's bag and grabbed his own nerf gun. He dove behind the couch for shelter and started firing at Harley, giggling the whole time.

"You little shit!" Harley laughed, hiding behind a wall and shooting from behind it.

Full out war broke out between the two boys. Hundreds of nerf darts were scattered across the floor. Both of them had wide smiles and flushed faces.

The war had ended when they both ran out of ammo (i.e, both became too tired to collect darts). They collapsed into the floor next to each other, trying to calm themselves down from giggling so much.

Harley turned his head about to speak but stopped in his tracks when he saw Peter. He usually kept his curls gelled down and somewhat-tamed during school but after rolling and running around, they were bigger, crazier, and fluffier than Harley had ever seen them.

Peter turned towards Harley, resulting in their faces being mere centimeters apart. Harley could almost count his freckles. Their eyes met unintentionally but neither dared to break the contact. 

His eyes were a deep shade of brown that reminded Harley of chocolate. Peter giggled (giggled! He fucking giggled!) And just smiled at Harley. A full, breathless, genuine smile. Teeth and all. Harley swore his heart must've been sent into overdrive.

He couldn't stop thinking about how he could feel Peter's breath on his face when he laughed and smell the honey in his hair. Honey? 

"Hey darlin, is your shampoo honey scented, by chance?" He asked in a hushed tone, his voice dropping nearly an octave. It took everything in him not to smirk and the intense blush making its way up Peter's cheeks.

"Yeah, it's honey treasures. Garnier Whole Blends," he whispered back, his voice trembling as he spoke.

Harley nodded absentmindedly as Peter went on about him and Aunt May sharing shampoo and conditioner most of the time to save them the difficulty of buying separate kinds, but Harley hardly heard any of it. He couldn't stop thinking about running his hands through Peter's soft curls and pulling him in as close as possible so he could feel the flutter of Peter's eyelashes against his cheek.

His gaze found itself at Peter's lips, chapped and rough from how often he bit them when he was flustered or anxious.

Harley could feel himself inching closer to the boy as he was still chattering on about bees and their importance to the ecosystem. He wanted to listen to Peter and have a whole conversation about the ecosystem and dangerous pesticides but it was like he no longer had control of his own body. He felt himself turn to his side to get closer to Peter and he saw his hand reach up to cup Peter's jaw when he suddenly looked back at Harley.

"That was almost as crazy as my homecoming," he giggled.

Harley stilled his advance in favor of savoring the sound of Peter's giggle and instead smiled fondly in response. "Almost?"

He nodded and launched into a retelling of the events of his crazy homecoming, but Harley checked out after the first sentence that left the boy's mouth.

"So I finally managed to ask this girl Liz who I'd been crushing on for a while to homecoming and she said yes, which was just the first crazy thing that happened."

Harley rolled onto his back, leaving a few inches between him and the rambling Peter. 

Peter. Of course he was straight. Why wouldn't he be? He'd been so stupid to think that Peter liked him, even a little. There'd never been any proof that Peter was gay or even bi, but there had never been any proof that he was straight either. At least, not until now. Peter liked girls and unfortunately, Harley liked Peter. Those were the facts and Harley had to stick to them.

The facts were that he might not have even a small chance with Peter, but that didn't mean he couldn't continue admiring him from afar. He could still be the reason behind Peter's blushing face and adorable stuttering, even if it wasn't in the way he had hoped. 

He made the decision right then to be the reason that Peter blushed and stuttered. Because of Harley. Not because of Liz or Betty or even MJ, because of him. Every single prank he pulled would have Peter stumbling, stuttering, huffing and scrunching his nose in that adorable way only he could pull off. But he wasn't going to get the results he wanted with stupid nerf guns or glitter, no. Harley had to go all out. He knew his weak spot, he knew what made him twitch.

He wouldn't hold back.


End file.
